The White House and lawmakers on Tuesday refrained from condemning a deadly Israeli attack on Gaza-bound ships carrying humanitarian aid. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not go much further than a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned the loss of life without criticizing Israelís actions. Gibbs echoed the resolution calling for the U.N. investigation of the incident to be ďprompt, impartial, credible and transparent.Ē At least 10 civilians were killed in the attack, and many were wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to visit President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but he...

Columnist and author of ďAdios, America,Ē Ann Coulter declared House Speaker Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) ďthe next Eric CantorĒ on Fridayís broadcast of HBOís ďReal Time.Ē Coulter said of Ryan, ďHe is so hated by the base. Ö Heís the next Eric Cantor, who was the highest member leadership ever to lose in a primary.Ē

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor admitted Tuesday that he underestimated Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. ďI was predicting way back when that Donald Trump had no chance. I think many of us were,Ē Cantor said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC. ďIíve stopped the business of predicting.Ē

In a recent op/ed in the Washington Post, columnist Eugene Robinson argued that ‚Äúit is no longer possible to think of the Republican Party as a coherent political force.‚ÄĚ Robinson further argued the current Republican Party was ‚Äúfactionalized and out of control.‚ÄĚ Unfortunately, Robinson was correct in his assessment of today‚Äôs Republican Party, and that should worry us all. (SNIP) First, they are not so much conservative as they are anti-government, and there is world of difference between those two things.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)rejects Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-FL) latest attempt to rewrite history on the Gang of Eight immigration bill. Contrary to Rubio's stunning claim that his Senate-passed plan was "not headed towards becoming law," Sessions says that Rubio's amnesty plan "was on the verge of being passed. Paul Ryan had the votes to get it passed."

"New State Department Emails Reveal Blumenthal Advised Clinton that former Rep. Eric Cantor Committed a Possible ‚ÄėFelony‚Äô by Disclosing Petraeus Classified Information".... ‚ÄėWill a grand jury be empaneled by the Justice Department? When will Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Judiciary Committee‚Ä¶ begin an investigation of this matter?‚Äô ‚Äď November 13, 2012 Blumenthal advised top Obama debate advisor that Romney would ‚Äėfalsify, distort, and mangle facts;‚Äô advised Clinton on Libya turmoil disclosed in ‚Äėinternal govt discussions high level‚Äô (Washington, DC) ‚Äď Judicial Watch announced today that on January 7, 2016, it obtained a new batch of documents from the Department...

Several pillars of the Virginia Republican establishment have signed on with the flailing presidential campaign of Jeb Bush. Thomas F. Farrell II, CEO of utility giant Dominion Resources, and Richard Cullen, chairman of the influential law firm McGuire Woods, have endorsed the former Florida governor, the campaign will announce Wednesday. -snip- Former House majority leader Eric Cantor joined the campaign as a co-chair in August, but new to the list are his longtime chief of staff Kristi Way and his right hand within the state party, Linwood Cobb.

Jeb Bush's backers have watched as Mr. Bush debuted his White House bid amid chatter of inevitability, then plummeted in polls. They have seen him bungle a debate performance, losing a pivotal exchange to his one-time protege, Senator Marco Rubio. And they have observed as Mr. Bush, in small towns and big cities, has proved a much less gifted campaigner than they ever anticipated. So on Saturday, as many of the Bush faithful descended on the Biltmore Hotel near Miami to hear from Mr. Bush and his team, his aides tried to put their most optimistic spin on a campaign...

Jeb Bush has a strong performance on Tuesday night's GOP debate stage and was 'really the serious candidate on stage" with his command of domestic and international policy, former Rep. Eric Cantor said Wednesday. "Clearly Jeb was back," the one-time House Majority Leader told CNN's "New Day" program. "Jeb clearly was prepared. He was the one most focused on identifying where conservative policies play out and benefit working people of this country. And was prepared to take on Hillary and did so last night more so than anybody." Bush believes in commonsense conservative policy, Cantor continued, versus what's become the...

Former Majority leader Eric Cantor praised Jeb Bush's performance in last night's GOP debate. Jeb made impressed the GOPe crowd when he lectured his opponents that deporting illegals was "un-American." "Jeb Bush has a strong performance on Tuesday night's GOP debate stage and was 'really the serious candidate on stage' with his command of domestic and international policy, former Rep. Eric Cantor said Wednesday. "Clearly Jeb was back," the one-time House Majority Leader told CNN's "New Day" program.

One of the most shocking upsets in 2014 was the primary defeat of the powerful Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor by tea party candidate David Brat. Brat was an underfunded unknown economics professor and yet battled successfully against Cantor's multi-million dollar campaign for reelection to Congress. His young campaign managers, Gray Delany and Zach Werrell, have written a great book released this week titled How to Bag A RINO.

Itís easy to be wrong when predicting the future of politics and politicians. But in March of 2014, Kevin ďCoachĒ Collins was spot on in predicting the downfall of John Boehner and the end of his days as House Speaker. That Coach is Right piece is posted below. ďCould this be the end of Boehnerís Speakership?Ē By Kevin ďCoachĒ Collins March 26th, 2014 John Boehner is often a difficult man to figure out. Sometimes he seems to want to lead the fight to restore Americaís greatness; but other times he seems hell bent on destroying what is left of America...

It was as if John Boehner had a confession to make after all these years of troubled conscience. His recent resignation had the effect of suggesting the pro wrestling in Congress is fake (emphasis mine). The Washington Republicans, dear fans are supposed to lose Ė after making some effort to heighten the drama ó to the Capital Democrats. All those heart stopping moments toward the end lost due to some error or a sudden reversal of fortune ó well that was in the script. Republican Eric Cantor, writing in the New York Times, argues that there was no dishonor to...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on one Sunday show ‚ÄĒ CBS‚Äô ‚ÄúFace the Nation‚ÄĚ ‚ÄĒ after his Friday surprise announcement that he‚Äôd be resigning from Congress in about a month.And Boehner used the opportunity to make another firm announcement: There will be no government shutdown this week, despite the efforts of some conservatives to block Planned Parenthood funding. ‚ÄúThe Senate is expected to pass a continuing resolution [this] week. The House will take up the Senate bill. We will also take up a select committee to investigate these horrific videos that we have seen from abortion clinics in several...

Grassroots voters in 2014 apparently foiled a secret plan by House Speaker Rep. John Boehner to give his top job to the partyís House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, who is a close ally of the GOPís establishment wing. The plan suddenly collapsed last June after Cantorís constituents in Virginiaís 7th district rejected him in favor of his primary challenger, economics professor Rep. Dave Brat. Brat won by blasting Cantor for mimicking Senator Sen. Marco Rubioís effort to pass the mass-amnesty bill that would further raise high immigration levels. ďThe Speakerís plan was to serve only through the end of...

LIKE so many others, I was stunned by Speaker John A. Boehnerís announcement on Friday that he would step down at the end of October. For nearly six years ó first as Republican whip and then as majority leader ó I met with John on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis as we worked to lead the House Republican Conference. (SNIP) We are in the midst of a campaign to elect the next president. After two terms of President Obama, an economy that is growing too slowly and a retrenchment of American power abroad, the conservative to-do list for the next...

The race has come down to preferred establishment candidate, Kevin McCarthy vs. Raul Labrador. (SNIP) On Wednesday, McCarthy assured Chamber of Commerce lobbyists that under his leadership, it would be business as usualÖ (SNIP) La Razaís Labrador Retriever pledged to make amnesty the GOPís #1 priority in 2015Ö Immigration reform should be ďone of the first thingsĒ Republicans take up. Before coming to Congress, Labrador ran a website called rapidimmigration.com, with ďeasy to understand advice for illegal immigrants seeking amnestyĒÖ

Ooouuuch. My sides are still aching after last week's comical announcement by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush that he had snagged the coveted endorsement of notorious electoral reject Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader kicked to the curb by disgusted voters in Virginia's 2014 primary election. Newsflash to GOP elites: Getting Cantor's support is not like landing a prized marlin. It's like hooking one of those hideous bottom-feeding blobfish named the world's ugliest creature. Inside the Beltway, The Washington Post reported, "Cantor remains well-liked and respected in the Virginia business community and among the Republican donor class in the...

Trying to get the GOP base on your side? Master stroke from Jeb! here. Cantor was courted intensely by other candidates. Cantor retains a strong political network in Virginia, a key primary and swing state. And he has enviable connections among Jewish business leaders who can be key supporters and donors. ďThis is a big deal for Eric, and a big deal for Jeb,Ē said a top Republican involved in the negotiations. A Cantor source said: ďThey have known each other for a long time, speak regularly and have great mutual respect for one another. Eric believes he is the...

Last year, House Democrats saw ex-Majority Leader Eric Cantor as a possible (if ultimately disappointing) ally in the fight to rewrite the Voting Rights Act for the 21st century. On Tuesday, Cantorís leadership successor, Kevin McCarthy, might have revealed himself as another important potential friend to the effort. The California Republican echoed at a pen-and-pad briefing what fellow GOP lawmakers have said before: Any revision of the landmark 1965 law has to start in the Judiciary Committee ó a disappointing answer for advocates who know Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., is disinclined to tackle the matter. But McCarthy later said...

For those who say JD canít win and no one can beat John Boehner Ė I can only say this: Go to New York, head on over to K Street (Wall Street) and find former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, where heís working some cushy, high-paid, influence peddling job now, since getting his arse handed to him by ďhe canít winĒ Dave Brat. Walk up to Cantor and tell him JD Winteregg cannot beat John Boehner: Then, I want you to take out your iPhone and take a pic of Eric Cantorís face right after you tell him Winteregg canít...

Presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio told FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace he still believe in comprehensive immigration reform, but the votes just aren't there. Rubio this is due to the 2014 border crisis and "unilateral actions the president took in his executive orders." Rubio acknowledged former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) "partially lost" the Republican primary in 2014 because of his support for comprehensive immigration reform. "The problem is the votes aren't there in the House," Rubio said Sunday. "And as you know, for example, the Majority Leader of the House partially lost his election on the perception...

Middleburg, Va. Republicans have few built-in advantages in politics. But they do have one thatís already a factor in the 2016 presidential campaign. That advantage is ideas, especially ones affecting middle-income Americans. GOP presidential candidates were among the first to notice. Florida senator Marco Rubio, who announced for president last week, met several times with a group of conservative intellectuals last year. Now his agenda, notably on taxes, echoes their ideas. So does his new book, American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone. When Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, came to Washington in February, he made a point of...

RICHMOND ó Less than a year after Eric Cantorís shocking defeat to a tea party challenger, House Speaker William J. Howell is taking nothing for granted in his first serious primary challenge in nearly three decades. The latest sign that Howell (R-Stafford) learned from the mistakes of the former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives came Wednesday, when the state lawmaker launched a Web site titled ďWe Know Bill.Ē It includes dozens of vignettes, complete with photos and fawning quotes, from retirees, busi≠ness≠peo≠ple and activists talking about why they support Howell over his challenger, Susan Stimpson. The approach...

A question I often am asked is: "Who would you bet on to win the presidency?" Personally, I don't bet on politics, but here's my current take on the 2016 presidential raceówith, of course, the caveat that we don't know which campaigns will turn out the best in terms of organization, strategy, tactics, or execution, much less which candidates will step on land mines along the way. The Democratic nomination appears fairly straightforward. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now the prohibitive favorite. If her early stumbles during her book tour, or remarks like the one she made about...

Republican Eric Cantor on Saturday addressed the inaugural gathering of a group formed after grass-roots activists helped Dave Brat topple the former majority leader in last summerís GOP primary. The day-long meeting of the Virginia Conservative Network featured a whoís who of establishment Republicans in the mold of Cantor, many of whom are frustrated with the partyís loss of all five statewide offices in recent years. According to organizers, Cantor gave an invitation-only crowd of more than 100 people tips on how to frame their message to voters as Republicans prepare to defend their slim majority in the state Senate...

Last June in the run up to a primary he was so sure he would win, former Obama water boy Eric Cantor didnít bother to campaign. He had told his liars about being a warrior against illegal aliens polluting America and decided to merely wait in Washington for word of his victory. That didnít happen. He was crushed by a TEA party candidate. When he got his head handed to him Cantor was shocked and acted contrite. That was his act then; but now free to be his real self he is taking some very different positions. As a Wall...

Unlike his predecessor as host of Meet the Press, Chuck Todd is an approachable, un-phony presence. He knows politics and clearly enjoys politics. But, boy, is he excitable, especially on the subject of immigration, where he often lets the drama of the moment cloud his judgment. [You need three examples-ed. Got em.] 1. Itís November 7, 2012. Romney has just lost the presidency, something many analysts immediately blame on his poor showing among Latinos. The Beltway mind instantly draws but one conclusion: Republicans need to assuage Latinos by legalizing illegal immigrants, stat. Obamaís Ďimmigration reform,í Todd says, will get ď80...

GOP members have released their draft amendment to defund President Barack Obamaís national amnesty. ďNone of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available, including any funds or fees collected or otherwise made available for expenditure, by this division or any other Act, or otherwise available to the Secretary of Homeland Security, for any fiscal year may be used to implement, administer, carry out, or enforce the [amnesty] policies,Ē says the short amendment. The new anti-amnesty language is being pushed by Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, South Carolinaís Rep. Mick Mulvaney and Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, who unseated the GOPís pro-amnesty majority...

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who shockingly toppled former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in a primary this summer, says he'll support John Boehner (R-Ohio) for Speaker. Brat told The Hill he plans to vote for Boehner on the floor in January when the Speaker is elected by the full House for the new Congress. "As of right now, yeah," Brat said. "I'm optimistic our leadership's going to move forward on the principles I ran on."

David Brat, the Republican who unseated ex-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in June, cruised to victory Tuesday night, according to multiple news outlets. Brat, who faced off with Democrat Jack Trammell, won the race for Virginiaís 7th congressional district. Despite both teaching at Randolph-Macon College, the two presented a different vision for Americaís future while courting voters. Brat rode a wave of tea-party backed support to a stunning upset of Cantor last summer and is favored to win the heavily Republican 7th Congressional District in central Virginia, which includes the Richmond-area suburbs. Brat repeatedly played up his role as an...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)In an exclusive interview Wednesday with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for accepting a multimillion-dollar job with a Wall Street investment bank shortly after leaving Congress. "This is wrong," Warren said in regard to Cantor's new role as vice chairman and managing director at Moelis & Co. "People work in Washington and, man, they hit that revolving door with a speed that would blind you." She went on to claim that banks hire politicians like Cantor "not because they bring great expertise and insight, but because theyíre selling...

Late Monday night it was reported that former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would take a job at investment bank Moelis.The news has already prompted the predictable eye-rolling about the "revolving door." And to the Tea Partiers who ousted Cantor in a primary earlier this year, the news that he is going to Wall Street is vindication that he was never a populist like them.But anyway, Moelis has put in a filing with the SEC, detailing his pay package (Via Erik Schatzker).From the filing:Group LP has agreed to pay Mr. Cantor an annual base salary of $400,000. Group LP has...

Eric Cantor just announced that he is quitting his House seat on August 18. The remainder of his term is likely to be filled by a special election held on the same day as the election for the next term. Itís almost certain that Dave Brat, the Republican firebrand who beat Cantor in the primary, will win both and take office immediately after November 4. Why did Cantor quit? There are three reasons, and Larry Sabato notwithstanding, ďgenerosityĒ to his successor isnít one of them. 1) Heís given up on the lame duck session. The last week of this legislative...

Virginia state Republican lawmakers have lost one of their most reliable sources of campaign cash with U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's defeat in a GOP primary contest last month. Cantor's campaign account and the Cantor-controlled 7th District Republican Committee have given more than $700,000 directly to Republican state candidates since Cantor was first elected to Congress in 2000. That is according to campaign finance reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit that tracks political contributions. Helping Cantor help state politicians were big-name donors from around the country attracted by the majority leader's former star power. They...

The Washington Post reported Friday that party players who were supporting soon-to-be-former Congressman Eric Cantor have pulled a fast one on the man who defeated him. Last week during a 7th District Committee meeting in Virginia, ďCantor loyalists who still sit on the 7th District Committee outmaneuvered Brat supporters to strip the committee of most of its budget ó nearly $400,000.Ē According to the Washington Post, a parliamentary maneuver allowed the money to be moved so that Bratís campaign couldnít use it. Brat was to use the money for a get out the vote campaign. The move may assist the...

Truth is one of the most powerful forces on earth. And perhaps the force most feared by compromised politicians. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's crushing defeat came at the hands of a virtual unknown college professor, one who overcame a 26 to 1 funding disadvantage in which 377 Political Action Committees (PACs) contributed to Cantorís 2014 campaign vs. 0 (zero) PAC contributions into Brat's 2014 campaign. It's been borderline hilarious watching so many media talking heads, politicians and campaign consultants grasp at explanatory straws. It reminds me of Mark Twain's quote, "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If...

U.S. Representative Eric Cantorís recent primary loss to free market economics professor David Brat has forced academics to take another look at the TEA Party. ďThey are very suspicious of liberal professors and believe most of academia is dominated by liberal professors,Ē Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol claims. ďBut they would know the difference in their district, and they wouldnít disrespect somebody just because they were a professor, if they had the appropriate ideas.Ē david brat ďItís not so much an animosity toward higher education, per se, and more toward a cultural elitism among liberals and concerns about liberal biases,Ē Ruth...

The other night, in the wake of Eric Cantorís epic loss to Dave Brat, MSNBCís Chris Matthews appeared with the left-wing news channelís new kid on the block, Ronan Farrow. Farrow was talking about how surprised he was that a Tea Party guy like Brat could be seemed to be so smart. After all, itís simply shocking that someone so conservative is capable of making cogent arguments! -SNIP- Hell may have frozen over, because Matthews is just plain sick of people looking down on the Tea Party: -SNIP- This looking down our noses at the Tea Party people has got...

Bob Woodward came close. Oh so close to discerning how much of the mainstream media were blindsided by the stunning defeat of former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his congressional primary in Virginia. In fact, Woodward came so close that your humble correspondent thought he was going to say it out loud today while being interviewed by CNN's Candy Crowley on State of the Union. Instead Woodward skipped the real reason and gave the secondary reason for neglect of this story. Woodward did mention that too many reporters don't like to do the hard footwork to investigate stories in...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer chose an interesting path and offered puzzling critiques since he tossed his name in the hat for a potential presidential run in 2016. But comments the Democrat made about Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a lengthy profile published by National Journal have probably knocked him off that path. In the piece, Schweitzer shared his perceptions on Cantor's sexuality while discussing the Virginia Republican's shocking loss last week against an unknown primary candidate. ďIf you were just a regular person, you turned on the TV, and you saw Eric Cantor talking, I would...

The big political news from last week was David Brat‚Äôs upset win over Eric Cantor for Congress. Brat is an economics professor at Randolph Macon and from his research it‚Äôs clear that he has strong political views embedded in his economics. It‚Äôs perfectly fine to be a political economist, but when it leads to an obviously flawed understanding and presentation of reality then it becomes a real problem in my opinion. For instance, in his website Brat says the following: ‚ÄúOur national debt has skyrocketed, reaching over $17 trillion dollars. What our leaders in Washington fail to mention is...

The Eric Cantor debacle in Virginia last week demanded a storyline, which was no heavy lifting. In the GOP primary a political newbie had wiped the floor with the majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Bring on the analysts to find the narrative in the rebuke administered, a rather remote if hard-working political power broker linked more frequently -- here comes the dichotomy -- with Wall Street than Main Street. Cantor, on these terms, updated Cardinal Wolsey's Shakespearean lament from "Henry VIII": "Had I but served my district with half the zeal/I served the Chamber of Commerce...

One of economic professor David Bratís central criticisms of Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor was that the House majority leader was too cozy with big business, leaving him more concerned about his relationships with K Street lobbyists than with his constituents. Although there are many reasons for Cantorís shocking defeat last week, Bratís attacks on the appearance of ďcrony capitalismĒ do seem to have resonated with voters in Virginiaís 7th District. Cantorís ouster forced House Republicans to choose a new leader, and all signs suggest that they will choose House Whip Kevin McCarthy, who has launched an aggressive campaign for the...

Rep. Raul Labrador, the Idaho Republican running for House majority leader, presided over chaos at this weekend's state GOP convention in Moscow, which abruptly adjourned Saturday after he failed to broker an agreement between the party's warring factions.

Itís now clear why the primary defeat of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, came so completely out of the blue last week: Beltway blindness that put a focus on fund-raising, power-brokering and partisan back-and-forth created a reality distortion field that obscured the will of the people. But that affliction was not Mr. Cantorís alone; it is shared by the political press. Reporters and commentators might want to pause and wipe the egg off their faces before they go on camera to cluck-cluck about how Mr. Cantor, Republican of Virginia, missed signs of the insurgency that took him out. There...